westytoploader
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Messages
- 4,485
Hi everyone,
Well, the much-awaited Dyson DC21 Stowaway canister, serial number 38, I purchased from fellow club member Tom Gasko that won't be hitting Best Buy for another two months (not until June), has finally arrived. How I became interested in the recent-model Dysons (enough to want to buy a DC21 for myself), is a long story, but here goes.
I first learned late last year off from a post on Vacuumland that Dyson was planning on introducing a few new models, starting late last year and going through this year. Shortly thereafter, the DC17 came out, and supposedly it was a machine designed specifically for American carpets. That statement was what piqued my interest. I had tried the DC15 at Best Buy when it came out, and while it seemed to handle different (and better) than any other machine, not to mention quiet and powerful, I wasn't too impressed by as the nozzle had a hard time picking up the bin dust dropped on the floor. As for the earlier DC07, forget it. I thought it was too noisy for my taste and just like the posts on the now-defunct Ivacuumcleaners.com forum said at the time, had a "long hairy stick" for a brushroll. So, upon seeing the DC17 at Best Buy, it seemed like it would definitely bring some competition for Dyson and be an improvement over the others. Later on, I found out that they were going to introduce to the US a canister with an electric power nozzle. I thought it was interesting news as in my opinion they needed something better than that air-driven turbo brush, but over the thrill of the Absolute, I really didn't think anything of it after that. I had actually planned on buying an Absolute as my first Dyson but other things ended up getting in the way. I still plan on having one in the future, though.
So, fast-forward to late February, when the idea of a North American Dyson canister with an electric power nozzle became a reality (not Dyson's first motorized-powerhead machine, though; they did make the DC05 Motorhead in the UK), and news about the new Dyson DC21 started to surface. It was introduced to the Canadian market around that time, and someone then put a picture of James Dyson demonstrating it during its debut in Canada on a Yahoo group. I first saw it and WOW, what an impressive machine it was. The unit itself looked like a normal Dyson canister with the angled-bin setup, however, the electric power nozzle and wand assembly looked like nothing I had ever seen before. This was THE one to buy! I then found out from Tom that it was going to be introduced to select vac shops in mid-March (nothing specific yet), and his was on the list. Seeing as how the Tucson wash-in was going to be around that time, yet after the introduction, I thought it would be great to buy one and have it shipped up there as a "surprise" so everyone could see and play with it that firsthand. It was ordered on March 20th, and in order for it to arrive to Tucson I had to put it on a plane (UPS 2nd Day Air) for $100, but in the end I would still be less than retail cost. It would arrive at Roger's address mid-morning on Friday. Everything sounded good, but...
...didn't go exactly as planned. Friday, I arrived, and a change of plans was made; that day was at Ross's. I asked Roger about the package and he said nothing had shown up when he left. I called Tom on Friday and mentioned it to him, but that it probably wasn't a big deal and it would probably be there the next day. Seeing as how it had to go to Louisville first from Festus before flying to Tucson, and that many planes were being grounded due to the weather, I wasn't too worried. It could very well arrive Saturday, which would be at Roger's house, and I would be there to get it. More wishful thinking on my part. By Saturday afternoon, still nothing, and by the evening there was really no way in hell it was going to arrive. By that time I was getting concerned; my worst fear was that it had been delivered, but had been grabbed from the porch. However, there were people there the entire time, and Roger's mom lives next door, so someone would have seen it and brought it in had it been delivered. For it to be stolen off the porch really would have had to have been a perfect coincedence, but hey, anything's possible. I had been keeping in touch with Tom throughout the weekend, and called him Saturday evening to give the bad news. The shipping receipt was at his shop (and it was late), so he couldn't give me the tracking number then, but Sunday morning he would go to the shop, get on the computer, and check the status. Sunday morning I called him at the shop and he got on to check it. Right after he pulled up the status page, the first thing he said was "You won't believe this." Well, what happened was, the package was not delievered due to an exception. That exception was that the package had been damaged during shipping and UPS would notify the sender the following week, which is why I never heard anything about it. The real kicker was that it made it all the way from Festus to Tucson with no problem; it was reported as damaged after it was on the truck to Roger's house! I was still pissed that it never showed up (as I obviously hadn't seen or used one before either!), but at the same time relieved that it simply was delivered and NOT stolen like I had feared. As it was, UPS owed me the cost of 2nd Day Air shipping, and if the machine was damaged the entered value of the machine ($400) would be refunded as well.
The following Monday I received an email from Roger that it actually had been DELIVERED to his house, and that it was sitting in his living room! I couldn't believe it. I called Roger and he opened the box (the Dyson box was packaged inside another box) and pulled out the machine while we were on the phone. The machine itself was fine, and he thought it was very cool-looking. We arranged it with UPS and they were to come pick the machine up Tuesday afternoon. Roger left the machine behind the fence and put a note on the door for the UPS guy, but he never showed. According to UPS an attempted delivery was made that afternoon, and would be made the following afternoon. Success! It was now picked up and on the way to Tom's shop, and he would ship it to me. Now it was time to get excited again.
So, this afternoon I was getting ready to go down to the washhouse to do some laundry when the UPS guy pulled up. I saw a fairly good-sized black box in his hand, could this be it? YES, it was! I bolted out the door and grabbed the box. Looking on the box at the serial number, this was the same machine, which has me puzzled as the box looked fine to me and everything was still wrapped. Anyway, here is the new Dyson DC21 Stowaway, before the (second?) grand opening...
Well, the much-awaited Dyson DC21 Stowaway canister, serial number 38, I purchased from fellow club member Tom Gasko that won't be hitting Best Buy for another two months (not until June), has finally arrived. How I became interested in the recent-model Dysons (enough to want to buy a DC21 for myself), is a long story, but here goes.
I first learned late last year off from a post on Vacuumland that Dyson was planning on introducing a few new models, starting late last year and going through this year. Shortly thereafter, the DC17 came out, and supposedly it was a machine designed specifically for American carpets. That statement was what piqued my interest. I had tried the DC15 at Best Buy when it came out, and while it seemed to handle different (and better) than any other machine, not to mention quiet and powerful, I wasn't too impressed by as the nozzle had a hard time picking up the bin dust dropped on the floor. As for the earlier DC07, forget it. I thought it was too noisy for my taste and just like the posts on the now-defunct Ivacuumcleaners.com forum said at the time, had a "long hairy stick" for a brushroll. So, upon seeing the DC17 at Best Buy, it seemed like it would definitely bring some competition for Dyson and be an improvement over the others. Later on, I found out that they were going to introduce to the US a canister with an electric power nozzle. I thought it was interesting news as in my opinion they needed something better than that air-driven turbo brush, but over the thrill of the Absolute, I really didn't think anything of it after that. I had actually planned on buying an Absolute as my first Dyson but other things ended up getting in the way. I still plan on having one in the future, though.
So, fast-forward to late February, when the idea of a North American Dyson canister with an electric power nozzle became a reality (not Dyson's first motorized-powerhead machine, though; they did make the DC05 Motorhead in the UK), and news about the new Dyson DC21 started to surface. It was introduced to the Canadian market around that time, and someone then put a picture of James Dyson demonstrating it during its debut in Canada on a Yahoo group. I first saw it and WOW, what an impressive machine it was. The unit itself looked like a normal Dyson canister with the angled-bin setup, however, the electric power nozzle and wand assembly looked like nothing I had ever seen before. This was THE one to buy! I then found out from Tom that it was going to be introduced to select vac shops in mid-March (nothing specific yet), and his was on the list. Seeing as how the Tucson wash-in was going to be around that time, yet after the introduction, I thought it would be great to buy one and have it shipped up there as a "surprise" so everyone could see and play with it that firsthand. It was ordered on March 20th, and in order for it to arrive to Tucson I had to put it on a plane (UPS 2nd Day Air) for $100, but in the end I would still be less than retail cost. It would arrive at Roger's address mid-morning on Friday. Everything sounded good, but...
...didn't go exactly as planned. Friday, I arrived, and a change of plans was made; that day was at Ross's. I asked Roger about the package and he said nothing had shown up when he left. I called Tom on Friday and mentioned it to him, but that it probably wasn't a big deal and it would probably be there the next day. Seeing as how it had to go to Louisville first from Festus before flying to Tucson, and that many planes were being grounded due to the weather, I wasn't too worried. It could very well arrive Saturday, which would be at Roger's house, and I would be there to get it. More wishful thinking on my part. By Saturday afternoon, still nothing, and by the evening there was really no way in hell it was going to arrive. By that time I was getting concerned; my worst fear was that it had been delivered, but had been grabbed from the porch. However, there were people there the entire time, and Roger's mom lives next door, so someone would have seen it and brought it in had it been delivered. For it to be stolen off the porch really would have had to have been a perfect coincedence, but hey, anything's possible. I had been keeping in touch with Tom throughout the weekend, and called him Saturday evening to give the bad news. The shipping receipt was at his shop (and it was late), so he couldn't give me the tracking number then, but Sunday morning he would go to the shop, get on the computer, and check the status. Sunday morning I called him at the shop and he got on to check it. Right after he pulled up the status page, the first thing he said was "You won't believe this." Well, what happened was, the package was not delievered due to an exception. That exception was that the package had been damaged during shipping and UPS would notify the sender the following week, which is why I never heard anything about it. The real kicker was that it made it all the way from Festus to Tucson with no problem; it was reported as damaged after it was on the truck to Roger's house! I was still pissed that it never showed up (as I obviously hadn't seen or used one before either!), but at the same time relieved that it simply was delivered and NOT stolen like I had feared. As it was, UPS owed me the cost of 2nd Day Air shipping, and if the machine was damaged the entered value of the machine ($400) would be refunded as well.
The following Monday I received an email from Roger that it actually had been DELIVERED to his house, and that it was sitting in his living room! I couldn't believe it. I called Roger and he opened the box (the Dyson box was packaged inside another box) and pulled out the machine while we were on the phone. The machine itself was fine, and he thought it was very cool-looking. We arranged it with UPS and they were to come pick the machine up Tuesday afternoon. Roger left the machine behind the fence and put a note on the door for the UPS guy, but he never showed. According to UPS an attempted delivery was made that afternoon, and would be made the following afternoon. Success! It was now picked up and on the way to Tom's shop, and he would ship it to me. Now it was time to get excited again.
So, this afternoon I was getting ready to go down to the washhouse to do some laundry when the UPS guy pulled up. I saw a fairly good-sized black box in his hand, could this be it? YES, it was! I bolted out the door and grabbed the box. Looking on the box at the serial number, this was the same machine, which has me puzzled as the box looked fine to me and everything was still wrapped. Anyway, here is the new Dyson DC21 Stowaway, before the (second?) grand opening...
